Trickster's Three
by ebonyandunicorn
Summary: The ten-year-old triplets of Alianne Crow find themselves in spots of trouble on a daily basis; it's difficult not to, when your mother is the Spymistress of the Copper Isles. But when a plot comes to light on the eleventh anniversary of Queen Dovasary's coronation, each of the children must put their own special skill to use to save the Isles and protect the people they love.
1. Dreams

**The Grey Palace, Rajmuat**  
**Kypriang, the Copper Isles **  
**21 December, 475 HE**

Every citizen of Rajmuat, it seemed, had turned out in their best clothes to watch the royal procession. Queen Dovasary Haiming Temaida Balitang, her husband of eleven years, their four children, several other family members and an innumerable number of guards were newly returned from the queen's annual tour of the Isles, but nobody could have predicted the sheer volume of people that would line the city streets to welcome them home. It had taken them the better part of a day to make the journey from Rajmuat Harbour to the Grey Palace, and Alianne Crow, Spymistress of the Copper Isles, had been waiting at the Gate of Victories since noon for her return.

Unfortunately for them, her children had had to wait with her.

"Are they here yet?" Junim asked for the third time in an hour, fidgeting with the hem of his tunic and shifting his weight from one foot onto the other with the impatience and energy that only a ten-year-old boy could have. Squinting down the road, he sharpened his Sight; he'd been the only one out of all the Crow triplets to inherit it from his mother.

"They'll get here when they get here, stupid," his sister said, reaching up to smack him across the back of the head. Ochobai Crow was smaller than both of her siblings and always would be, but she had the fiery temper of her elder namesake to make up for it, and she had learned how to hit. Junim yelped and rubbed at the back of his head, glaring at Ochobai. Their other sister, Ulasu, looked on calmly, her hands linked behind her back.

"Soon, my chicks," Aly hummed, stroking the darking she wore as a band around her neck. "Trick says they're almost at the Grain Gate now."

"Can we go play?" Junim asked, bouncing up and down. "I want to play. Please, Mama, we've been waiting here for _hours_. Her Majesty just has to stop and talk to _everyone_ about _everything,_ all the time."

"That's because she's the queen," Ulasu said. "It's her job to talk to everyone."

"It's _boring_." Junim folded his arms and scowled.

"Maybe for you," Ulasu replied, her voice and face still calm. The youngest of Aly's triplets was possessed of a preternaturally quiet air that went beyond the ability to keep her emotions hidden. She didn't speak often, unless she had something she felt important enough to say – unlike her sister, who had an opinion on just about everything.

"Junim's just jealous because he thinks Princess Amiera is _pretty_ and he wants to _see_ her," Ochobai said wickedly.

"I do not."

Ochobai snickered. "Sure you don't. That explains why your feathers get so ruffled every time she walks by. You _like_ her."

"I do not!"

"You want to _preen_ her and _mate-feed_ her and –"

The rest of Ochobai's mockery was lost as Junim leapt at his sister, tackling her to the ground. In seconds the two Crow children were covered in dirt and screeching at one another, rolling back and forth and trading slaps and kicks. Ulasu simply looked on, one raised eyebrow the only sign of her amusement. Aly rolled her eyes and crouched beside her children, pulling the two ten-year-olds apart with little difficulty.

"Enough," she said in her Mama Means Business voice. "Ochobai, you should know better than to tease your brother. Junim, you should _definitely_ know better than to attack your sister. Not only is it most improper, but she can hit much harder than you."

Ochobai folded her arms and stuck her tongue out at her brother. Junim turned away and proceeded to sulk.

"Look at you both," Aly continued ruefully. "I'd hardly present you to your own father looking like that, much less the queen. You'll both have to get changed before Their Majesties return. Go on, both of you. Now."

"But Mama –" Junim began. The only thing worse than having to wait for the royal party was not being allowed to wait for the royal party.

"No buts," Aly said firmly. "Could you imagine Princess Amiera's face if she saw you now?"

Junim glanced down at his soiled clothes and gulped. Without another word, he turned and ran towards the palace, his sister following after him as fast as her short legs would carry her, teasing him all the way.

"Shall I go with them, Mama?" Ulasu asked.

Aly shook her head. "No, sweet. I'd like to have at least one of my children on hand to welcome Their Majesties home. Trick says Dove will be here any minute."

"I know she will," Ulasu said with a small nod.

* * *

Much later, when Dove and her family had changed, fed, and heard Aly's reports of what had occurred in their absence, three thoroughly exhausted ten-year-olds prepared for bed in the room in the palace they shared. Ulasu brushed out her long black hair until it shone; Ochobai's dark curls were cropped close to her head, or else they were impossible to tame. Junim kept trailing off in the middle of sentences, remembering the shy glance Princess Amiera had afforded him at the dining table, and then thoroughly denying doing so whenever Ochobai teased him about it. When their parents had kissed them goodnight and tucked them into their separate beds, they fell quickly into sleep. It had been a long day.

Ulasu woke in the early hours of the morning from a dream that had left her bathed in sweat.

It had been one of the dreams that she had come to accept as meaning more than the simple night-visions other people experienced. These dreams were always clear and sharp, the colours brighter than in the waking world. In the dream Ulasu and her siblings were climbing one of the palace's many grand staircases; this particular one led to the rooftop, though the door that led to the roof was always locked and barred. In her dream, it was not, and she passed through it as though it were air in any case.

On the rooftop were a hundred men and women, neither raka nor luarin nor crow, all dressed for battle. When they saw her and her siblings, they raised their weapons to kill. Their swords and arrows passed through the children, though, and whenever Ulasu reached out to touch one of the warriors, they disappeared into smoke and ash. Soon the rooftop was clear, but the stones were spattered with blood. A man's voice was whispering to her on the breeze, but she couldn't quite make out his words. Just as the dream began to fade, she saw her sister Ochobai standing on the very edge of the roof. Ulasu tried to call out to her, to grab the back of her tunic, but she moved as though through thick honey, and Ochobai jumped.

Now awake, Ulasu did her best to control her frantic breathing and the rapid pulse of her heart. Moving as quietly as she could – she didn't want to wake her siblings – she crept into Ochobai's bed and snuggled up against her sister's snoring form. She saw Junim wake and raise his head, watched as he squinted over towards the bed where his sisters lay, sharpening his Sight. A moment later he was curled up on Ochobai's other side.

"Did you dream?" he whispered to Ulasu.

She nodded. He reached out and grasped her hand under the blankets, and they remained that way until dawn.


	2. Crows

**Market District, Rajmuat**  
**Kypriang, the Copper Isles **  
**22 December, 475 HE**

In the five or so years since Ulasu had first begun having dreams, the triplets had, without discussion, decided on a set of several unofficial rules. First, Ochobai and Junim were not to bother Ulasu in the daytime about what she had seen the following night, no matter how curious they were. Second, if Ulasu had said she had seen something, she had seen it – there were no arguments and no questions. Third, and most important, Ulasu's dreams were not mentioned to anyone outside of the triplets. Not their godsparents, not the Princess Amiera, and definitely not their Mama.

Thus, as the three Crow children wandered down the Rajmuat streets under the watchful eye of their father, their discussion focused on far less important things than the dream Ulasu had had the previous night. They talked about the upcoming celebrations of the coronation anniversary; it was almost eleven years since Dove had been made queen. They complained about how jealous they were of the king and queen's children for getting to have all kinds of adventures around the Isles, and badgered their father about taking them on a trip sometime soon. They waved to their friends when they passed and pointed out various wares that caught their eye in the colourful stalls that lined Rajmuat's streets. They listened to the cawing of the crows and made replies with their human-shaped throats, which were ignored.

Their father Nawat had brought the children along to help him with shopping for the anniversary celebrations. Ochobai, who hated shopping, was the first to ask if she could go play with some of their friends instead. Nawat, juggling three heavy bags in one hand and a big wooden crate in the other, could never refuse Ochobai anything, and gave his permission. Junim was instantly jealous, and so he had to be allowed to go too. Eventually only Ulasu remained with her father, walking beside him in her customary silence with a sack of fruit in her arms.

"You are troubled, daughter," Nawat said. It was not a question.

Ulasu shook her head and did her best to smile. Their father was more than human, and he had magic of his own. It may not have been the Sight that his wife and son possessed, but crow-magic was powerful in its own way; he had known that Ochobai would be a dwarf when she was only a few months old. Ulasu had dreamed this and later asked him about it. Nawat had confirmed it, but he had made no mention of the other thing he had done – disobeyed crow law by not culling the defective nestling. The Rajmuat flock had cast him out in response, and refused to acknowledge the triplets. Though he never spoke of it, Ulasu knew that it still troubled him.

"I'm tired, Da," she answered in her soft voice. "We were waiting for Queen Dovasary all day yesterday, and we were awake until late with the princes and princesses, after." She did not have to fake the yawn that stretched her mouth wide; she really was tired, even if that wasn't the only thing that worried her. Nawat's crow-magic would alert him to his daughter's uneasiness, but it could not tell him about her dreams.

Nawat stopped walking to shift the bags he carried onto one arm, and held out his now-empty hand for the sack that Ulasu carried. "Go back to the nest," he said gently. "Sleep, or read. Rest for a little while before your mother calls you to help her with the preparations."

"Don't you need my help?"

He shrugged in the crow way, sticking out his shoulder blades. "I will manage," he said. "Find your siblings on the way home. Your mother will want to put you all to work soon."

Ulasu handed him the sack of fruit and reached up on tiptoe to kiss his cheek before scampering away in search of Ochobai and Junim.

She found her siblings on the border between the Market District and Middle Town, in the company of several of their friends. Tyaral Drejari, a boy of twelve, was leading the pack, telling them in a hushed voice of the cache of treasures he had found in an abandoned storehouse on the outskirts of Middle Town. "...coins and jewels and old maps and letters and all kinds of things! You absolutely won't believe it. C'mon, I'll show you!"

He beckoned for the children to follow him and they went eagerly. Ulasu caught up to her brother and sister and said, "Da wants us back home to help Mama prepare for tomorrow."

"But Ulasu!" Junim cried. "There are sparklies!"

Ulasu's eyes lit up and she immediately followed, all thoughts of her father's wishes gone from her mind. Their fellow children would never understand, but all three of the Crow triplets had inherited their father's love for sparkly things. It came from their crow-blood. They followed Tyaral and the others through the winding streets of Middle Town right to the edge. There, as promised, stood an abandoned storehouse that looked minutes away from collapsing.

Ulasu began to feel sick.

"Are you sure it's safe?" Junim asked, squinting at the rotting wooden beams over the entrance. His Sight identified termites crawling in and out of the wood. "Hey, there are bugs! Aw, now I'm hungry."

"Do you want to think with something other than your stomach for once?" Ulasu snapped, unusually harsh. There was a pounding in her temples that told her this was an incredibly bad idea. "Tyaral, this place isn't safe. We shouldn't go in there."

"But the sparklies," Junim protested.

"If Ulasu says we don't go, we don't go." Ochobai folded her arms, glaring up at her brother. Ulasu nodded slowly, putting a hand on Junim's arm. He looked at her and sighed.

"Fine."

"Surely you guys aren't scared of a little wood-rot?" Tyaral mocked. "There are all kinds of treasure in there. It's perfectly safe. Come on, I was in there yesterday and it was fine. Look, I'll show you –"

"Don't!" Ulasu shouted as Tyaral skipped towards the entrance of the building. Her grip on Junim's arm turned punishing, blunt nails digging into his skin. Ochobai, noticing, lunged forward after Tyaral and grabbed the back of his tunic, wrenching him backwards with the strength her small form belied. He yelped and swore as they went sprawling in the dirt.

A second later, there was a hideous groan and the abandoned storehouse collapsed in on itself.

Silence fell over the gathered group of children. Ulasu slowly released her grip on Junim's arm, linking her hands behind her back and staring at the ground. Ochobai stood up and dusted herself off, while Junim went over to Tyaral and extended a hand to help him up. The Drejari boy got up slowly, staring first at the ruins of the storehouse, and then at Ulasu. "How did you know?" he asked. "I was here just yesterday and it looked perfectly sturdy. But then you came and you said... If you hadn't warned me, I would've... How did you know?"

"It just looked unsafe," Ulasu replied calmly. "Ochobai, Junim, let's go. Mama wants us home."


	3. Codes

**The Grey Palace, Rajmuat**  
**Kypriang, the Copper Isles **  
**22 December, 475 HE**

"And where have you three tricksters been?"

The words were spoken by a tall, solidly-built man who caught the triplets as they tried to creep through the Grain Gate as unobtrusively as possible. He stared impassively down at them with his hands linked behind his back, but not one of the three children was intimidated by him. Rather, Ochobai yelled, "Uncle Taybur!" and flung herself at him, giggling as he lifted her easily into the air. As she put her arms out and pretended to fly, Junim waved cheerily to the Captain of the Queen's Guard, and Ulasu gave a reserved nod. "We've been in the city," Ochobai explained when Taybur had returned her to the ground. "We were, um, helping Da with the anniversary preparations."

"I see," Taybur replied gravely. "Well, it just so happens that your poor father returned from the markets over twenty minutes ago with his arms full enough of shopping to fall off. You three have unusual ideas about the definition of 'helping'."

Ochobai scratched her ear. "We got distracted."

Taybur laughed. "I'm sure you did. I won't bother asking just what you got up to. Your mother is inside. She's been asking after you all morning. The Carthaki delegation arrives tomorrow."

"Oh, of course," Ulasu murmured. "I'd forgotten." The Queen's sister Saraiyu, who had eloped to Carthak eleven years before, was returning to the Isles with her husband and family to celebrate the anniversary of her sister's coronation.

"It's not like you to forget things, Ulasu," Taybur said with a frown, returning Ochobai to the ground.

"Sorry," the girl answered quietly. "I'm a little tired. Come on, Junim, Ochobai. Mama will have things for us to do."

Not for the first time, the youngest Crow child took the lead as the triplets went in search of their mother. She was quick to lead them away from Taybur, for, as much as she loved their godsfather, she didn't want anyone asking too many questions about what they'd been doing in the city. As well as having unusual dreams, Ulasu was frequently haunted by premonitions, including the one that had saved Tyaral from death inside the abandoned warehouse only that morning. Her siblings knew a little about the visions and 'bad feelings' Ulasu sometimes experienced, but their family and friends did not. She intended to keep it that way.

"There you are, my chicks." Aly met them halfway up a long flight of stairs. "I was beginning to wonder if you'd all gotten lost in the market. Come on; we have things to do. Junim, I've left a whole stack of coded letters on your desk. Break the codes, write them out, and deliver them to me. Ulasu, I want you to help Pembery sort through the gifts set aside to present to Sarai and her family tomorrow. Ochobai..." Aly looked over her daughter with a sharp eye and sighed. "You are covered in dirt. I don't know what you were doing this morning and I don't want to, but go and get changed, and then you can help your sister."

* * *

As Ochobai began to complain about having to change, Junim hurried off towards his room, his eyes shining with excitement. Unlike Ulasu, who shied away from violence and trickery, and Ochobai, who lacked the necessary subtlety and patience, Junim loved helping his mother with spywork. He was the only one of the triplets who had any sort of aptitude for codebreaking, lockpicking, lip-reading, and the other skills their mother used every day in her work. She'd refused to teach them the less 'respectable' aspects of her profession, such as pickpocketing, but he and Ochobai had both learned hand-to-hand combat skills, though Ulasu would not. Perhaps it was the Sight he'd inherited from his mother, or maybe he simply wanted to set himself apart from his sisters, but Junim was a gifted spy-in-training, and he adored working with codes.

He ran to the room he shared with his siblings and smiled gleefully when he discovered it was locked; his mother was testing him. Junim reached into his raka-style sash and carefully extracted the roll of cloth that held his lockpicks. He'd fashioned them himself, under Aly's watchful gaze. Now he inserted one carefully into the lock and jiggled it about, closing his eyes as he felt out the lock's mechanism. After four picks, he understood it; after seven, he had sprung it open. Grinning with pride, Junim pushed open the door and skipped into the room.

There was a modest pile of letters on his desk that sent an excited thrill down his spine. He gently picked up the first one and identified it as a short letter from Tortall. It was from his grandfather, George Cooper, and written in a complicated Tortallan code made up of dots, smudges, and tiny holes pricked in the paper. Junim took a clean sheet of paper from the drawer in his desk and began to carefully write it out. When he was done transcribing it, he read it over and laughed.

_Dearest grandson, _

_If you are reading this, I am most impressed. I see my daughter is teaching you everything I taught her when she was your age. Evidently this crookedness runs in the family, no matter how much my noble wife would protest otherwise. _

_Life in this part of the world is, at present, as dull as a doornail. I have written this to you and not to my dear daughter because I fear that she would mock me for having nothing to do. She will learn, when she is older, that sometimes calm and quiet can be a blessing – as, I expect, will you. Though I will grant you both that frenzied activity is much more _fun_, and wish you luck for the upcoming celebrations on that note. _

_Give my love to your parents and your sisters, and my best wishes to your godsmother... and her daughter, especially if you are still sighing after her like a wee lost lamb. _

_Your wicked, doting grandfather,  
G_

After he had worked through George's letter, Junim turned his attentions to the others. Several were low-priority messages from Aly's spies, which he decoded and put to one side to pass on to his mother. Some detailed events from the outer Isles that had occurred during Queen Dove's tour. Others described the security measures they'd put in place to keep Rajmuat safe during the anniversary celebrations. One or two used a system that was utterly unique – a mess of lines scratched in ink onto paper with a beak or a claw. Crow code.

After almost an hour, Junim had decoded all of the letters except one. It was in a code he had memorised years ago, but no matter how many times he reread it, he couldn't make it make sense. As far as he could tell, it read: _Deadly news rides horses that swim_. It was a saying that made no sense to him whatsoever, and he couldn't identify the sender at all. With a short, frustrated sigh, Junim nevertheless printed it out neatly and added it to the pile to give to his mother. He'd sorted them by author and priority; this one he put at the bottom.


	4. Gifts

**The Grey Palace, Rajmuat  
****Kypriang, the Copper Isles  
****22 December, 475 HE**

Ochobai Crow was blessed with two loving parents, but it was no secret to any of the family that she and her father were especially close. While this was usually a source of joy rather than consternation, it also meant that Ochobai was used to getting her way whenever she argued with her father. Alianne Crow adored her children, but she, unlike Nawat, could be strict with them. No matter how much of a fuss Ochobai made, she eventually had to give up and go to her room to change her clothes.

Grumbling to herself, Ochobai tugged her sarong over her head and threw it unceremoniously to the floor, squeaking as it tugged at the hair at the base of her scalp. Its bright colours had been covered in dirt when she'd tackled Tyaral Drejari to the floor, but a particularly vivid dark patch on the material caught her eye. A black feather was sitting on top of the sarong. It seemed it had not tugged at her hair after all.

Ochobai crouched by the sarong and picked up the feather, twirling it slowly in her fingers. Then she reached up and touched her fingers gently to the top of the back of her neck, where she'd felt the sarong catch and tug. There was a sore spot and a dampness there. She pulled away her fingers and saw the blood.

With a short sigh, Ochobai wiped her fingers on the sarong, grinning when she thought about how the maids would screech if they saw her do it. It was not the first time Ochobai had sprouted feathers; one or two often appeared when she got really mad. They weren't too much of a hassle, but it did hurt when she accidentally pulled them out. Her father was proud of the feathers, but they made her mother anxious, so she didn't talk about them much. Junim and Ulasu simply accepted them as part of what made her herself, like her dwarfism, or Junim's Sight, or Ulasu's dreams.

When she'd stopped the bleeding at the base of her scalp, Ochobai began to search for something to wear. She couldn't borrow anything of Ulasu's because her sister was too tall and slim – and besides, everything Ulasu owned was either pink or skirts, or both. Ochobai had almost twice as many outfits as her sister did, because she got them messy at least three times more often. She chose a luarin-style outfit that consisted of a cotton tunic and breeches and took much more time than was necessary to put it on. Eventually, though, she could delay no longer, and had to walk downstairs to seek out and help her sister.

Ulasu and Pembery were gathered in one of the large sitting rooms in the palace. In the middle of the carpeted floor, a large pile of gifts for the Hetnim family was gradually being sorted through. Saraiyu Hetnim had four children – two boys and two girls – and each of them, as well as their parents, was receiving a lavish present from Queen Dove. Ochobai didn't really understand the logic behind the Queen giving gifts to people who were visiting to celebrate her own coronation, but she was smart enough not to question the logic of the royal family.

"Hi, Ocho," Ulasu said, not bothering to look up as her sister entered the room.

Ochobai grunted her reply and sat in front of the pile of presents. "Who's getting what?" she asked, her eye instantly caught by the sparkly necklace in an open case on the top of the pile.

"The citrine jewellery is for Lady Saraiyu," Pembery answered. "The emeralds are for Sarugani, and the sapphires are for Imiary. The sword is for Mequen, and the toys are for Elsren. The books are for Lord Hetnim. Be careful with the big one; it's over two hundred years old."

Ochobai and Ulasu exchanged a glance at the names of the children – while raka custom decreed that children should not take the names of those who had gone before them, Sarai had named each of her children bar one after deceased members of her family. The other girl, Imiary, was named for a famous raka queen of the Isles. Ochobai wondered if Zaimid had had a hand in naming any of his children.

"Ochobai, would you pass me that book, please?" Ulasu asked. Ochobai picked it up and glanced at the title: _Jungle Remedies of Gempang and Kypriang_. Screwing up her nose, she passed it to her sister. Ochobai had no interest in books.

Ulasu, of course, was the exact opposite. The moment the book was in her hands, she flipped it open and began to read eagerly. It took a gentle reminder from Pembery to make Ulasu put it in a pile with the rest of the books for Lord Zaimid. Ochobai, meanwhile, was distracted with the jewellery meant for Imiary, so neither of the sisters noticed their brother's presence until he knocked on the door.

"Sorry to interrupt, but have you two seen Mama?"

"No," they answered in unison.

"I think she's downstairs with the King and Queen," Pembery supplied. "Would you like me to take those to her?"

"No!" Junim said quickly, protectively clutching the papers he held. "I mean... Can you show me where she is, maybe? I don't want to interrupt her if she's with Queen Dove, but I'll wait until she's done and then give these to her. They're sort of important."

Pembery glanced uncertainly over to the two Crow sisters. Ochobai elbowed Ulasu, who was deep in another of the books, and said, "We'll be good, Pembery. We'll have it all sorted by the time you get back."

"Are you sure?" Pembery asked doubtfully.

"Yes," Ulasu replied firmly. To demonstrate, she closed the book and placed it on the pile with the rest of them. "I'm sure you won't be long, anyway."

Pembery's face relaxed into a smile. "You're right. I'll be back in a moment, girls. Junim, this way." She led their brother down the stairs, closing the door to the sitting room behind her.

Ochobai turned to Ulasu and waited. The younger girl was tracing the pattern embroidered on the cover of one of the books. Eventually she said in a quiet voice, "Thank you for stopping Tyaral today."

"You saw it before it happened, didn't you?" Ochobai asked with her customary lack of tact. "The storehouse collapsing?"

Ulasu still didn't look up. "I didn't exactly 'see' it," she said. "I just had a... bad feeling. I knew it was going to happen, but he might still have gone in if you hadn't stopped him."

Ochobai gave the crow-shrug, sticking out her shoulderblades. "I could tell you'd seen something bad."

Ulasu nodded. "Thanks."

They went back to their work. No more mention was made of what Ulasu had sensed before the storehouse collapse. True to their word, the girls had sorted the rest of the gifts before Pembery returned with the message that their mother was, yet again, looking for them. This time both of the sisters groaned, reluctant to part with the sparkly jewellery and – in Ulasu's case – the hundreds-of-years-old books. Even so, they didn't waste time going in search of their mother as requested. There was work to be done.


	5. Plots

**The Grey Palace, Rajmuat  
****Kypriang, the Copper Isles  
****22 December, 475 HE**

Hours later and exhausted once more, the three Crow children tumbled into bed, each with something on their mind.

Junim was attempting to work out what the coded message meant. _Deadly news rides horses that swim_. He'd wanted to ask his mother about it, but Aly had been running around like a madwoman all day, sorting through reports, giving the triplets a thousand things to do, talking almost constantly to Trick as the darking relayed all kinds of information to and fro. He had barely managed to find the time to pass on the reports he'd decoded; she had rewarded him with a quick kiss to the forehead and a promise to read them later. He supposed that, whatever the code was, his mother would figure it out and deal with it if she thought it was important enough.

Ochobai was thinking about the feather that had sprouted below her scalp. She had put it on her bedside table and was staring across at it as she lay in bed, even if she couldn't see it well this late at night. Her father's crow blood had manifested itself in many ways in his children, but good night vision was not something crows possessed; only Junim, thanks to his mother's Sight, was able to see well in the dark. Even so, the feathers were unique to Ochobai alone. Neither Ulasu, with her dreams and premonitions, nor Junim, with his Sight and love of codes, had ever had a crow feather sprout from beneath their skin. Ochobai was wondering what it meant.

Ulasu fell asleep almost instantly, which usually meant that she would dream. This particular instance was no exception; almost the moment her head hit the pillows, she was visiting a dream-world. In this world, the people were garbed in long robes and spoke a language she couldn't understand. There was some sort of gathering taking place by a harbour, where a woman with a veil over her face surrounded by dozens of attendants was stepping onto a lavishly decorated ship. Ulasu was sure that she knew who this woman was, but she was unable to see her face through the veil before she disappeared inside the glimmering boat.

Night was falling and the light was poor, but Ulasu continued to watch as a party of poorly-dressed men and women followed the veiled woman and her attendants onto the ship. From the whips that were being brandished in their directions, Ulasu knew these people to be slaves. There were rats skittering around their feet. Ulasu's dream-self moved closer, but suddenly the rats reared up and began to squeal at her, jumping towards her with their teeth bared to bite.

Ulasu woke abruptly, sitting up in bed and sweating. At the sound of Ulasu's terrified breathing, Ochobai rolled over and squinted at her sister through the dark. "Ula?" she whispered groggily. "You all right?"

"Fine," Ulasu answered, lying quickly down again. "I'm fine, Ochobai. Go back to sleep."

"Mmf." Her sister needed no further encouragement and within moments was snoring again, unsurprisingly. What was surprising was that Ulasu, too, quickly fell asleep again. Usually after a dream like that she lay awake for hours, replaying every scene in her head and trying to figure out what all of it meant. This time, though, she almost felt like something was dragging her into sleep, dragging her down...

* * *

"Hello," said a light male voice. "I _am_ glad that we can meet at last."

Ulasu was in a dream-world once more, but this one she recognised as her own Kypriang. Once again she was looking at a harbour, but this time it was from a high angle; her dream-self was sitting in a tree on a hill overlooking the water. Turning towards the source of the voice, Ulasu saw a crow sitting beside her. Immediately she knew this was no ordinary crow. Besides the ridiculous amount of jewellery it was wearing, there was an aura of power that surrounded it. Ulasu's mother and grandparents had all taught her the signs, but she would have known even without them.

"You're a god."

"Very good," the crow praised. It was unnerving to see the bird's mouth make the movements required for human speech. "My name is Kyprioth."

_Kyprioth_. The trickster god who had meddled in her mother's life, and her grandfather's before that. "Hello," Ulasu replied cautiously. She ought to bow, but she didn't want to fall out of the tree, so she compromised by lowering her head. "I'm Ulasu."

"I know you are, dear." The crow's eyes danced. "Ulasu Crow, the daughter of my beloved Alianne. Her youngest child, possessed of a most unusual gift – the ability to See or sense future events before they happen. Yes, Ulasu, I know all about you... and I need your help."

"Why?"

Kyprioth gestured with a wing out towards the ocean, where a glimmering craft was slowly making its way towards the harbour. Though it was too far away for Ulasu to make out any sort of detail, she knew it was the ship she had seen in her previous dream. A moment later the sun rose behind it and Ulasu had to shield her eyes and look away. "The Carthaki delegation," Kyprioth explained. "My estranged Saraiyu, her husband the healer, and their four children." Though his crisp, precise voice had not risen in volume, Ulasu could detect a simmering tension beneath it. Having pieced together her history lessons with what she'd heard in conversations between her mother and Queen Dove, Ulasu knew that Saraiyu, not her younger sister, had once been Kyprioth's candidate for the Isles' throne – until she had eloped with the Carthaki healer, Zaimid Hetnim, aided by Kyprioth's fellow trickster god, the Graveyard Hag.

"They're here for the coronation," Ulasu said. "Is that a bad thing?"

The crow shuffled his feathers, making the chains around his neck jangle. "No," he said after a moment. "It is not a bad thing. The Isles are Saraiyu's home, even if she abandoned them long ago, and I will not begrudge her her return. What worries me, Ulasu, is the presence of her slaves."

Ulasu remembered the ragged men and women she had seen boarding the ship after Sarai in her previous dream. "But we have slaves here in the Isles, too," she pointed out. "They're necessary to its survival, even if we wish it were otherwise." This, too, had been an often-debated topic in the palace, particularly between her mother, who came from the slave-free Tortall and had once been a slave herself, and the Queen, who had the ability to outlaw slavery but also knew that they were essential to the economy of the Isles.

"True enough," Kyprioth replied. "But the slaves here are no threat to us. The slaves on Saraiyu's boat, however, are not slaves at all. They are assassins, Ulasu. Trained killers. They come with Dovasary's sister because it will allow them to get close to the queen, and then they will strike. I need you and your siblings' help to stop them."

Ulasu chewed on her lip for a moment, as she often did when she was thinking. She knew from her mother's and grandparents' warnings that politeness was key when speaking with gods, and she didn't want to vex Kyprioth by questioning his plans, but she had to ask. "Why us? Why not tell Mama?"

Kyprioth's eyes were dancing again; it was an expression Ulasu recognised as the one her mother wore whenever she was about to say something contrary. "Well, dear, there are a whole host of reasons for that. First and foremost, I'm wagering that you and your siblings can keep the queen and her family safe, and I like wagers."

_That's a lot to wager on a trio of ten-year-olds_, Ulasu thought, but this time she kept it to herself.

"Secondly," Kyprioth went on, "the three of you need a challenge. When your mother was sixteen, she was captured by pirates and sold into slavery; when she was seventeen, she helped orchestrate a revolution. She needed to prove to her father that she would be a good spy, and I helped her to do that. She had talents that needed to be utilised. You, Ochobai, and Junim each have talents of your own, and it would be a pity to waste them. This is an _opportunity_, my dear. You'll thank me one day... if you don't end up dead, of course."

Ulasu had to bite down on her lip to keep from arguing. She had the sense that the god beside her was enjoying himself far too much.

"And finally," Kyprioth continued, a note of sorrow now in his crisp tone, "the sad truth is that your mother has grown somewhat lax. In eleven years of relative peace, there's been nothing to keep her on her toes. If I whispered in her ear that an assassination attempt is arriving with the Carthaki delegation, I would simply be making things too easy for her. A nice, brisk shock to jolt her out of her laziness will be good for my dear Alianne."

"What's to stop me from telling her?" Ulasu asked before she could stop herself.

Kyprioth gave a harsh crow's laugh. "Clever girl. You've unearthed the crowning glory of this trick of mine. Your lovely mother simply does not appreciate your talents, Ulasu. She pays no attention to your Seeing gift, or to your brother's aptitude with codes, and she certainly knows nothing about your sister."

"She knows all about Junai's abilities," Ulasu countered. "She lets him decode spy messages sometimes."

"Ah, but only after she's read through them first," Kyprioth confided regretfully. "She gives him the ones she believes are of lesser importance – a grave mistake, as you'll soon see. By all means, tell Alianne what you saw in your dream, but I can assure you that she will not realise its value until it's too late."

"So what am I supposed to do?" Ulasu demanded.

Kyprioth stuck out his shoulderblades in the crow-shrug. "That, my dear, is up to you. Speak to Ochobai and Junim; they will help. But hurry, now. The sun is rising, and Lady Saraiyu's ship will soon arrive in Rajmuat Harbour..."


	6. News

**The Grey Palace, Rajmuat  
Kypriang, the Copper Isles  
23 December, 475 HE**

A brisk knock on the door woke the Crow children a little after dawn, or tried to. Ochobai grumbled loudly as she struggled out of bed, but that was normal for her. Junim was very quiet, still thinking hard about the one coded letter he'd been unable to figure out: _Deadly news rides horses that swim_. What was strangest of all, though, was that Ulasu, who was usually up with the sun, would not awaken. Junim poked her and said her name loudly, but it did nothing. Not even Ochobai pulling her hair would draw the girl out of her deep sleep.

"What's taking you so long, my chicks?" Aly's voice sang through the door. "We've a thousand and one things to do before Lady Sarai and her family arrive."

Ochobai and Junim exchanged glances. With an unspoken agreement, they both decided not to mention Ulasu's unusual sleep-in to their mother. Aly had enough on her plate as it was, and they didn't want her to ask about Ulasu's sleeping habits any more than was necessary. It was probably, Ochobai and Junim were thinking, something to do with her dreams.

"We'll be down in a minute, Mama," Junim called in reply. Ulasu did not stir.

"Good," Aly said. "Chenaol will feed you. I have to talk to your father. I'll see you all mid-morning – and make sure you look presentable!"

When the sound of their mother's footsteps had faded, the two awake Crow children looked at each other. "What do we do?" Ochobai asked.

Junim stared down at his sleeping sister. "Maybe she's dreaming."

They were silent for a moment more, then Ochobai shrugged and headed towards the door. "We'll worry about her later," she said. "I'm _starving_."

* * *

They ate in a small room off the kitchen, where Aly sometimes took her meals when she was rushed and had no time to eat in the dining hall. Chenaol attended to them herself, even though her time would have been stretched impossibly thin with preparing the coronation banquets. The raka woman was quite elderly, but she had no problem navigating her kitchen, grand as it was, and she certainly wasn't about to step down from the position of chief cook that Queen Dove had granted her. Added to that, she was absurdly fond of the Crow children, and they of her – even if she did go on a long rant about the incompetence of the kitchen staff every now and again.

"I sent Rarok to the markets for wheat rolls, and he came back with barley," she huffed, loading Ochobai's plate with sago cakes. "_Barley_. If I can tell the difference between the two with my ancient eyes, he has no excuse. Sometimes I think his head is filled with flour instead of sense." She rolled her eyes and shook her head, then looked from Junim to Ochobai and back. "You're both very quiet this morning," she observed. "Aren't you excited for the coronation?"

They glanced at each other, then shrugged simultaneously. Neither of them were about to admit that their thoughts were caught up with Ulasu, who couldn't be awakened. Instead Junim cast around for something else to talk about. The first thing he landed on had been bothering him for almost two days: "Chenaol," he said, "have you ever heard the saying, 'Deadly news rides horses that swim'?"

Chenaol looked at him sharply, the wrinkles in her forehead only adding to the seriousness of her stare. "We used to have a similar saying before Queen Dove came to power," she said slowly. "'_Deadly news rides horses that fly_'. In the days of Rittevon rule, the kudarung were captured and bred as royal messengers; they rarely carried good tidings. But the kudarung fly freely now, and I've never heard of a breed that swims."

Junim nodded and returned his attention to his breakfast.

"Why do you ask?" Chenaol wanted to know.

"Just heard it somewhere." The last of his bread finished, Junim gave a sigh of satisfaction and slipped off his stool. "Come on, Ocho. Mama said we have to make ourselves nice before Lady Sarai and her family get here, and you spilled sauce on your shirt."

"I did _not_," Ochobai argued, attempting to lick away the evidence.

"That's a waste of good sauce, girl," Chenaol admonished, but there was a smile tucked into the corners of her wrinkled mouth. She reached across the bench for a napkin and handed it to Ochobai. "Now be off, the both of you. I still have all the desserts to prepare, and I'm going to need all the time I can get to make them, working with these idiots."

Junim and Ochobai walked quickly back to their room, anxious to check on Ulasu. They didn't bother to knock before barging in, so they were surprised to see Ulasu awake when they entered, sitting on the side of her bed with her head bowed. She looked up sharply at the noise of the door opening, but relaxed a little when she saw that it was only her siblings.

"Finally," Ochobai said, though there was relief underneath her words. "I thought you were just gonna laze around in bed all day."

Junim's brow was furrowed with concern. "Were you dreaming?"

Ulasu nodded, brushing her hair back from her face to meet the worried gazes of her brother and sister. "Yes," she said. There was an odd cadence to her voice, one that was deeper and older than her years. It made both Ochobai and Junim shiver. "I was dreaming."

"What did you see?" Ochobai pressed. Junim glared at her. She was breaking one of the rules; they were not to ask Ulasu about what she had dreamed.

This time, though, Ulasu didn't hesitate to tell them. "I saw... a god," she whispered. "Kyprioth."

Junim's eyes went wide as saucers. Ochobai gasped loud enough to draw in half the air in the room.

"He spoke to me," Ulasu said, very quietly. "He told me something terrible is going to happen. We have to stop it – the three of us."

"What's going to happen?" Ochobai asked.

Ulasu swallowed, her gaze falling into her lap. "Assassins are travelling to the Isles, on the ship from Carthak," she said. "They're in disguise as Lady Saraiyu's slaves. They want to kill the queen."

Ochobai and Junim gaped at her, too shocked for words.

"We have to tell Mama," Junim said at last.

"We can't," Ulasu told him. "The god said that she wouldn't believe us even if we did. He wants us to take care of this – _only_ us. He's testing us, he said."

"We're ten years old!" Junim yelled, fright driving up the volume of his voice. "We can't –"

"Yes, we can," Ulasu said, as Ochobai shushed him. "We have talents," Ulasu went on. "The god told me. You can crack codes, and I can See things. Somehow we have to –"

"What about me?" Ochobai demanded, cutting her off.

Ulasu was silent for a moment, staring at her sister. "I don't know," she said at last. "The god kept it a secret. I could tell that there was something, but he didn't say what it was."

Ochobai folded her arms, but she didn't argue.

"Are you sure, Ula?" Junim asked nervously. "How do you know that this wasn't just a... a normal dream? A regular, not-real, doesn't-mean-anything dream?"

"Trust me, Junim," Ulasu said. "It's true. Assassins are coming with Lady Sarai, and they're going to kill Queen Dove if we don't do something."

"What are we supposed to do?" Junim asked despairingly. "We're a couple of chicks. None of us can use a sword. You haven't even learned hand-to-hand fighting, Ula. And we don't have 'talents', not if I can't even crack a simple code."

Ulasu stared hard at him. "What code?"

Before he could answer, a second round of knocking sounded at the children's door. All three of them jumped as a male voice floated through. "Your mother has sent me to round up her errant children," Taybur Sibigat called. He was trying to be stern, but they could hear the merriness. "She wants to see you in the front hall. The delegation from Carthak is due to arrive in the harbour in an hour, and we all need to be there to greet them."

The three children looked at each other, their faces each wearing identical expressions of fear.

* * *

After that, there was no chance for them to talk in private. They dressed quickly and were escorted by Taybur to the hall, where Aly met them, lectured them about being late, and set them three separate jobs to do before they left for the harbour. The pre-coronation crowd was already lining the streets to watch as Queen Dovasary and her family made the journey to welcome her estranged sister home.

Junim was fidgeting hopelessly with anything he could get his hands on. Ochobai was scowling and refused to make eye contact with anyone. Ulasu's face was serene as ever, but underneath she was a turmoil of anxiety. Anyone who knew the children well could tell that something big was on their minds, but Aly was busy watching the crowd and Nawat was busy watching Aly. Nobody noticed the triplets' unusual behaviour, and nobody noticed, when they got to the harbour, that Junim, upon sighting the Carthaki ship, almost fell over in shock.

The prow of the boat was carved into an elaborate wooden horse's head. Along the sides of the ship, most assuredly for decoration rather than functionality, ran two wings that glimmered in the noon light as the slaves beneath them rowed hard. Junim's Sight could pick these details out easily, even if his sisters and the rest of the group could not. He could read the name carved into the side of the ship. He finally understood the mysterious code, and he knew that his sister's dream had been real.

The ship's name was _Kudarung_, and it was a horse that swam.

And it was most assuredly bearing deadly news.


End file.
